the president is showing an advantage over mr. romney in most of the battleground states. many think by virtue of his appearance on the stage face to face with the president, that will elevate mr. romney. 5,000-plus people here when he arrived. he's looking for an opportunity to reframe the debate as he has been saying on the campaign trail, the choice between the obama dependency society and what he calls the free enterprise individual liberty and personal responsibility. >> we'll get to describe our respective views and i believe people of colorado will choose a better way forward for our country. we can't afford four more years like the last four years. >> reporter: today mr. romney is behind closed doors. we haven't been told whether this will be one of his more informal discussions with his aids work on what mr. romney calls his zingers or whether it will be a mock debate with senator rob portman who has been shadow boxing with mr. romney more weeks now. in the expectations game the obama campaign has seeds on romney's prook is time and the fact that he had 20 debates